NFT Mint Dates

1. NFTs Are Booming. What Investors
Need to Know
Most of us own portfolios of stocks and bonds. Adventurous investors are sprinkling in Bored Apes and
CryptoPunks. Visit us to know about NFT Mint Dates
These cartoonish-sounding characters aren’t anything like traditional investments—they have no physical
properties, don’t pay dividends or interest, and provide no claims about future cash flows. But they’re
among the most popular nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, a type of digital collectible or digital asset. Prized
NFTs now cost more than a new Ferrari—Bored Apes are going for at least $300,000 on trading platform
OpenSea. A CryptoPunk recently sold for $11.75 million.
“Each new generation of wealth gets to define the things that it considers beautiful societal artifacts,”
says Matt Hougan, chief investment officer of Bitwise Asset Management, sponsor of a private-placement
NFT fund that launched in December. Investors who aren’t among the crypto-wealthy just want exposure
to the theme of “set it and forget it,” he says.
NFTs are capturing the crypto zeitgeist. The digital assets hit $44 billion in value in 2021, according to
Chainalysis, rising from almost nothing in 2019. Prices have since dipped but the market is still worth an
estimated $30 billion, according to investment bank Jefferies. Venture-capital firms are plowing funds into
the space, pushing up valuations to more than $13 billion for OpenSea, the leading platform. Hollywood
has caught on with celebrity endorsements and movie deals for characters. Companies including
Anheuser-Busch InBev (ticker: BUD), Gucci, and Adidas (ADDYY) have launched NFT projects.
It’s all good fun if you have some spare cash and like to dabble in crypto. Yet investors would be wise to
tread cautiously, even if they’re only eyeing NFTs as an addition to core crypto holdings or valuables like
physical art.
The tokens pose numerous challenges as an investment. Trading takes place on unregulated platforms
such as OpenSea and Nifty Gateway—venues that aren’t licensed by any government authority. A
celebrity tweet can cause prices to surge, but the floor may be zero when the digital glitterati move on.
Most NFTs are priced in ether, a cryptocurrency that itself is highly volatile, taking cues from Bitcoin and
the broader crypto market. An NFT priced at 10 ether tokens was worth about $3,500 in September 2020.
Today, it would be worth $31,000, based on prices for 10 ether at $3,100 per coin.
NFTs look vulnerable to weakness in broader crypto demand, analysts say, even as they continue to
expand in the arenas of digital art, music, and e-commerce.
“There is a high risk of loss as pop-culture trends shift,” advisor Jim Roberts warned in a recent
commentary. “Many NFTs could eventually become worthless.”
What Makes NFTs So Alluring? Two key attributes of NFTs are their distinctive properties and traceable
ownership. Unlike currencies that are fungible—one Bitcoin or U.S. dollar is the same as any other—each
NFT is unique. Every CryptoPunk or Bored Ape, for instance, looks slightly different. While anyone can
right-click on the image and post it on their Instagram, every NFT has software code that can be used to

2. trace it to the owner’s digital wallet and establish its authenticity. That can confer a digital seal of
provenance, enabling NFTs to be swapped on “trustless” networks like a blockchain. Whether it’s a video
clip, piece of art, snippet of music, or even a tweet, if you hold the NFT, you can credibly say you own it.
NFTs mainly live on the Ethereum network, although the Solana blockchain is competing with lower fees
for minting and trading tokens. If you want an NFT, you’ll probably have to buy it with ether on a platform
like OpenSea or Rarible. That entails purchasing some ether on a crypto exchange, transferring it to a
digital wallet, and linking it to an NFT platform.
One goal for NFT issuers is to drum up scarcity value with limited-edition collections—ideally creating buzz
that pushes up the price. Only 10,000 individual Bored Apes and CryptoPunk NFTs have been minted.
CryptoPunk #7523, one of nine “aliens” in the series and the only one with a mask, sold for $11.75 million
at a Sotheby’s auction last June. Owning a high-priced NFT confers status—like hanging a Warhol in your
living room but showing it to the world. NFT collectors proudly display their works, tweeting about their
purchases and deploying them as profile pictures on social media.
One other appeal is membership in an exclusive club or community. Bored Ape owners can join the “Yacht
Club” and contribute to a graffiti board called “The Bathroom.” More important, perhaps, they may gain
access to celebrity-stocked parties—in November, one took place on a real New York yacht, featuring
Chris Rock, Aziz Ansari, and the Strokes.
Other membership benefits may include dibs on future tokens. Original CryptoPunks owners received free
Meebits, a nonfungible token collection created by the CryptoPunks developer, Larva Labs. Meebits are
now selling on OpenSea, starting at about $6,818 each. Another popular collection, World of Women,
offers monthly “airdrops” from NFT artists, presales, and invitations to an annual gala. The tokens,
launched in July for about $225 each, now fetch at least $30,000 on OpenSea, with some selling for more
than $100,000.
NFTs are also being used in virtual marketplaces and videogames as assets, like a coveted sword. Virtual
real estate is being bought and sold with NFTs as collateral. The high-end art market has joined, with big-
name artists like Damien Hirst and auction house Sotheby’s. Incentives for turning physical art into NFTs
took off after works by the artists Beeple and Pak sold for $69 million and $91 million, respectively.
Major companies are also minting NFTs. One reason is to capture sales in online marketplaces and reach
crypto-savvy consumers. Burberry (BURBY)—a fashion label started in 1856—issued 2,250 NFTs in an
online marketplace called Blankos Block Party. Nike (NKE) now owns a virtual sneaker maker, RTFKT, that
mints NFTs; owners of the tokens may exchange them for physical merchandise. That business model is
also behind Bud Light’s recent NFT drop. Adidas, for its part, sold nearly 30,000 “Into the Metaverse”’
NFTs for more than $22 million in December. Owners will be able to redeem the tokens for merchandise
this year, Adidas says.
While buying nonfungible tokens is somewhat cumbersome, that could soon change. Coinbase Global
(COIN) and other companies are developing ways for investors to buy in with a few clicks and a credit
card. Coinbase says it’s building a marketplace, signing up Mastercard (MA) to process payments.
GameStop (GME), the beleaguered videogame retailer, also says it’s developing an NFT marketplace.